PANAJI
Interestingly, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, had increased the road tax by a huge margin in his last budget, which had badly affected the sales of cars in Goa, as people started buying expensive cars from outside the State. Dealers are hoping that this would stop now with the reduction in the road tax.
Prashant Joshi, president of Goa Automobile Dealers Association (GADA), said, “I think the CM has done a superb job by reducing the road tax, as it will give a huge relief to the buyers of automobiles. When road tax was increased, people had started getting their premium cars registered in states like Puducherry, where tax is less. Due to that, the State was losing tax-revenue.”
There is no doubt that Parrikar has greatly reduced the road tax. For example, the road tax on a four wheeler costing more than Rs 35 lakh is 14% now compared to 18% earlier, in the case of an individual.
In case, a company with a share capital of more than Rs 50 lakh buys a vehicle costing more than Rs 35 lakh, the road tax has been reduced to 16% from 21% earlier, which is a reduction of 5%.
Joshi continued, “In Goa, around 75% cars are bought by individuals and only remaining 25% are bought by companies because we don’t have large corporates. This means that common people buying cars will benefit due to reduction in the road tax.”
Meanwhile, even buyers of premium bikes will get benefits, as Parrikar announced that the road tax on two-wheelers costing more than Rs 3 lakh will be reduced to 15% as compared to 20% earlier.
However, the new road tax rates haven’t been implemented as yet. Therefore, the dealers are eagerly anticipating this reduction so that customers buy more automobiles thereby giving a boost to their sales.
